Special Indeed
by beautiful imperfections
Summary: While Max and the Flock have been busy saving the world, another group of kids have been locked in cages. Some seemingly without any thing unhuman about them. When two unlikely mutants band together they escape, and run into the legandly Maximum Ride.FAX!
1. Prologue

Prologue:

"How is it doing?" Director Jared Bentsen peered into the dog crate where the newest experiment was restlessly sleeping. Its' breathing was fast and irregular, whimpering even now and then.

"It appears to be relatively healthy," his assistant, Kevin Opel, said, scribbling notes frantically onto his clipboard.

"Is this one male or female?" the director asked. He poked his finger into the cage and touched the experiment's side. It whimpered but didn't wake.

"It's female," Kevin answered, double checking the chart to be sure.

"Hmm," Dr. Bentsen said.

"Since the first one was male we figured it would be best to try female," the assistant jumped to explain, seeing the look of disproval on his boss's face.

"Yes." Dr. Bentsen straightened up. "Good work," he said before leaving the lab room.

Kevin set his clipboard down and looked in on the sleeping girl. It had long blond hair that lay tangled on the top of her head. She shivered under her thin t-shirt and for a moment he felt a twinge of sympathy.

He shook his head. No, it wasn't a human. It was an experiment, not some little girl. He finished up his work and turned to leave the room but when he turned the light off, the experiment woke with a blood curtailing scream.

Kevin cringed and flipped the light back on. The experiment looked around the room wildly before meeting Kevin's gaze. Her big brown eyes broke his heart but he turned away and closed the door, flipping the light off, and just like the first time it screamed, but this time he ignored it and walked away. It would have to learn to live with the darkness.


	2. Mistake

Chapter One:

"Hey, Otis," Leo called to the boy in the cage next to hers.

Otis just flicked a glance at her before turning to Livi, who was in the cage next to him. Livi and Otis were the two oldest and both had the ability to fly. To them, Leo was considered incapable of anything just because she was younger and wasn't given wings.

She sighed and patiently waited for Kara to return. Kara was only a year older than she was and wasn't such a snob like Livi and Otis. Hopefully the doctors would bring her back soon.

While she waited she smiled at the new boy who was across from her. He had dark hair and eyes, and appeared to be about her age. He looked sad and scared, and didn't return the smile.

"My name's Leo," she called to him.

He just blinked slowly and didn't answer.

Not bothered in the least over him being unresponsive, she asked, "What's your name?"

He still didn't answer and Leo was beginning to wonder if he could talk at all. Sometimes the kids here couldn't.

"Can you talk?" she asked.

This time the boy nodded his head. "Yes," he spoke quietly. Leo could barely hear him.

Leo smiled again, "Do you have a name?"

"Yes," the boy said again but he didn't offer one.

"So what's your name?" Leo giggled.

The boy didn't answer. Instead he turned around.

Leo frowned and opened her mouth to speak to him again when Otis snapped, "Quit talking to him! He's one of the mistakes!"

Leo's brow furrowed. "Mistakes?" The twelve year old glanced over at the new boy again. "He looks fine to me."

Otis groaned, annoyed. "He's one of the killing experiments."

Leo's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Recently, there had been a rumor going on that some of the new experiments had turned into monsters. "That's awful!"

Livi peered in through Otis's cage and smiled gently at Leo as if she was a little kid. "I know, sweetie," she said.

Leo clenched her teeth when she said sweetie but somehow managed to keep her mouth shut. Livi was only two years older than she was but she was convinced that Leo needed to see her as a mother figure.

She turned away from Livi's smiling face and stared at the boy. He didn't seem any different than she was.

The next morning, Leo woke with a start. Someone was yelling and screaming. She watched in horror as the new boy, who was somehow out of his cage, attacked one of the doctors. His brown eyes were filled with bloodlust, his face twisted with rage.

He growled and lunged at the terrified doctor, his fingernails morphing into claws.

"Stop!" Leo could hear Livi yelling at the boy. "Stop, quit it!"

But he didn't even appear to have heard her. He clawed merciless at the doctor's face and the doctor flailed his arms wildly, trying to get the monster off of him.

Soon, three other doctors enter the room and together managed to get the boy back in his cage but each of them had scratches, and they hauled the first one away, unconscious.

"See what I said about him being a monster?" Otis spat.

Leo swallowed hard and nodded, staring at the boy. He was panting and his nails were turning back to normal. His chocolate eyes lost the fire and he seemed defeated.

"Why did you do that?" Leo couldn't help but ask.

"Shut up, Leo," Otis ordered. "Don't talk to him."

Leo ignored his remark. "Why?"

At first the boy looked like he wasn't going to answer, but then he said quietly, "They hurt me, they hate me. They're going to kill all of us."

"No they're not," Livi insisted. "They made us to save the world. They wouldn't kill us. And they only reason we have to go through the pain is to be prepared for what's ahead."

The boy shook his head. "That's what they tell you. That was the original plan, but not anymore. They consider all of us failures. They're going to learn what they can from us and then kill everyone so they can start over. I'm a survivor. The only way to survive is to beat them at their own game. If that means killing them first, so be it."

"You lying, pathetic monster!" Livi hissed. "They would never do such things. We're like their children to them."

"Children?" The strange boy mocked. "I'm no child anymore. I've seen too much."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Leo stuttered.

"The room I came from I had six of us in it, very much like this one. But we were never treated well. They call us killing machines." He gave a lopsided grin. "Appropriate enough. Anyways, they would beat us and hurt us. Look." He lift up his shirt and revealed his scar covered chest. He turned around and his back had even more, some not quite healed yet.

Livi gasped. "It must have been your own fault," she said, but she sounded uncertain. "They would never do that unless it was necessary."

"Trust me, it wasn't necessary. By the way. I'm Peter."

No one else made a move to introduce themselves so Leo did. "That's Livi, Otis, Kara, Bobby and Sylvie."

"So what abilities does everyone have?" Peter asked.

Several minutes ticked by before Livi spoke up, "I can fly." She pulled out her tan color wings enough so Peter could see them.

"I can too." Otis show off his dark brown ones

"I can jump really high," Kara piped up. She looked at her younger brother Bobby. "Bobby can too."

Bobby nodded but didn't say anything.

"I can turn invisible," Sylvie said proudly. She disappeared for a second before reappearing.

Everyone had said what they could do besides Leo. Peter looked at her expectantly. "What about you?" he asked.

Leo looked away, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. "I, um, well, you know." She sighed. "I don't have any powers."

"You don't?" the boy called Peter frowned. "Then why do they keep you around?"

Leo flinched, feeling almost as if she had been slapped in the face. "Maybe I do," she said quietly, refusing to look at anyone. They had all given up on her developing anything. "Maybe I just don't know it yet." It sounded weak and silly even to her ears.

Peter scoffed. "Uh huh. You're probably considered even more of a mistake to them, than me. No offense," he added quickly, suddenly noticing he tears that had formed in her eyes. "_I _don't think any less of you because of it. I'm just saying _they _do."

"No they don't!" she snapped, her fists clenching tightly on her sides.

Peter rolled his eyes, not having enough pity to comfort her further.

"Of course they don't, honey," Livi said softly. Leo was too upset to be mad that she was acting motherly again. "They love everyone the same; that's what they always say."

Leo nodded, though she didn't believe it. Peter was right. She was a mistake.


End file.
